• DM News , Wednesday, March 12, 2008 1:30 PM

Using accurate meta tags for images and user-facing tags for videos is par for the course in terms of multimedia search optimization, but we're far from an ideal solution in terms of making rich-media-like podcasts and widgets more SEO-friendly. But as Ellen Keohane finds out, technologists at Yahoo and Pluggd are working to develop solutions to the optimization problem.

Pluggd, for example, has developed "semantic concept models that encapsulate meaning," says Alex Castro, the video tech provider's founder and CEO. These models extend the functionality of speech recognition in online video, working to establish statistical relationships between words used. "Those statistical relationships can then be classified into categories like sports or finance or politics," Castro says.

Yahoo, too, is working on speech recognition technology, in addition to tools that will help measure stats like time spent with a widget or video as opposed to just CTRs. According to Deepail Tamhane, senior product manager of Yahoo Search, click-throughs will become less important to advertisers with the increased usage of rich media files on Web sites. "But it should still be two or three more years before the technology is able to achieve this level of optimization for rich media files, such as video and audio content," Tamhane says.

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